The Education Department has no clue about the number of unrecognised schools in Kozhikode district.
This assumes significance against the backdrop of the Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights directing the Director General of Education to submit a report on such educational institutions. This follows 29 students of a private school in Kochi not being allowed to appear for the board exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as their school did not have affiliation.
RTE Act
“We don’t have any list of such schools,” V.P. Mini, Deputy Director of Education, Kozhikode, told The Hindu on Tuesday. A couple of years ago, however, the department had planned to take action against such institutions in compliance with the Right to Education (RTE) Act that made it clear that schools offering elementary education (from Class 1 to Class 8) should be recognised by the State government or other agencies. There were reports that a list of close to 300 schools had been prepared then. There are 17 educational sub-districts in Kozhikode and there were close to 30 unrecognised schools in one of them alone. Sources in the department said that some of those schools managed to get a stay against closure from courts.
